Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the church's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired power to broaden the institution's control. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable product, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader war with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the finding of a set of curious cracks in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to lead to other worlds. One such portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and return to feeling, however, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
